


A Different Kind of Scarlet Lady

by PrinceKapitan



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: ...not that one, ...sort of, Chloé Bourgeois Being Chloé Bourgeois, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Damocles salt, Episode: s03 Ladybug, F/F, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Lila salt, Scarlet Lady AU (Miraculous Ladybug)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27250534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceKapitan/pseuds/PrinceKapitan
Summary: Chloé has enough of being sidelined and after Marinette is expelled and the whole class is nearly enslaved by Hawk Moth she reaches her breaking point.
Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 8
Kudos: 237





	A Different Kind of Scarlet Lady

Chloé sulked in her room, looking at each akuma battle wondering if she could do it all better. Each passing day, her faith in Ladybug began to waver. She knew she was being kept off the team for her own safety, but it still hurt. It wasn’t just something one could simply “understand” or “accept”, perhaps the heroine expected too much out of her. She had willed off every akuma that dared to come near her. One could dare call her invincible to them, alas no one ever knew any of this. 

All of these attempts happened while she was alone and as everyday went by she felt less rewarded by her efforts to keep Hawk Moth out of her head, emotions bottling up, insecurities rising, there was nothing stopping it from all seeping out. Perhaps there was that glimmer of hope, that Hawk Moth could go down and she could be Queen Bee again. Alas, no such luck.

One day at school the unthinkable happened, Marinette had been accused of cheating on the most recent test, Lila having framed her no doubt. She kept that bit to herself though, she had her own problems to deal with, no time to get involved in other people’s affairs, much less the affairs of her archrival. She however knew for a fact Lila was lying, she worked her fingers to the bone to best Marinette and was still beaten, no cheating.

After hearing her rival was expelled however, she tried to play it off. Unfortunately, the seeping suspicion that Queen Bee would’ve been able to utterly annihilate Lila before she ever had a chance to strike made her feel uneasy, and there it went. That last shred of faith vanishing completely. Suddenly a flurry of scarlet akumas entered the room and took over everyone except for Alya. Things seemed bad, and it looked like Ladybug wasn’t going to be able to stop this one.

However, each akuma ended up revoked with no explanation, or at least all of them should have been revoked, but one still remained somehow. “I’ve been trying to keep you little fuckers out!” Chloé thought to herself, “Now it’s time I keep them in!” The akuma couldn’t escape, her incredible willpower disallowing it from doing so. No one really seemed to notice, everyone too preoccupied with the shock that Marinette would actually cheat and steal. 

Marinette was walked out by her parents, everyone seemed to follow, still shocked. “What do you all want?! An interview?! Get away from my daughter!” Tom yelled, uncharacteristically angry. Normally he seemed very cheerful, but today he was on the brink of snapping. I guess when your daughter is wrongly accused without proof it can shorten your temper.

Chloé meanwhile, having fought to keep the akuma in her mind, finally managed to mold it into her psyche. “No one ever cared about me! No one ever cared about Marinette! Ladybug abandoned us, left us. Well not anymore.” Suddenly a red skin suit surrounded her, her eyes glowing red as well and her hair following suit. And thus the Scarlet Lady was born, she was ready to take matters into her own hands. The first thing she did was walk into the classroom, predictably no one, not even Sabrina noticed she was absent. She stormed to the back of the classroom where Little Miss Liar was sitting and proceeded to hoist her up, running out of the classroom. “Seems you’re missing a few injuries, let’s fix that.” And she took Lila up to the roof, ready to toss her off. “Now you’ll really have a tale to tell!” Hoisting the girl up, she tossed her as hard as she could, and once she hit the ground it was evident that fall really hurt her. She couldn’t get up and the fall appeared to shatter both her ankles and probably broke a lot of other things. Unable to walk, she began to crawl with Scarlet Lady in hot pursuit.

The class rushed out to witness this. “What the…” Adrien uttered.

Battered and bruised, Scarlet Lady hoisted the liar to her feet and delivered a swift punch to the jaw causing her to topple over. “You’re a disgrace, utterly a disgrace!” Nothing was stopping her from laying into the brunette. Every hit given to her harder than the last, if Ladybug wasn’t going to stop this no one was, but speak of the devil…

“Chloé?! Stop!” A familiar voice called out, and right on cue it was Ladybug.

“Chloé is gone, I’m Scarlet Lady! And I’m here to clean up your mess!”

“My mess?!” She examined the barely conscious Lila. “You’re gonna kill her!” Adrien creeped away from the distracted crowd.

“After what she did to Mar… um…” she corrected herself, “me, I can’t let her get away with it!”

“And what exactly did she do to you?” Ladybug asked.

“She hurt someone I know, now either help me or get lost! You’re not needed.”

Right behind her came Cat Noir, who was quick to seize Scarlet Lady. “Chloé stop! Revenge isn’t going to solve anything!”

“I’m sorry…” Lila uttered, barely able to breathe, coughing up blood.

“Oh, now you’re sorry!” Scarlet Lady yelled, “That’s how it is, now that I’ve beaten you to a bloody pulp and you’re afraid of dying you’re sorry!” Her rage seethed further. “You’ve lied to us every day. You hurt someone I love!”

Ladybug’s eyes widened, she couldn’t possibly be referring to Marinette, could she?

It took both of them to stop the blonde, who finally fell to her knees; sobbing. “Why Ladybug?” Scarlet Lady asked herself. “What did I do wrong?” Her voice went hoarse, and she was met with the warm embrace of Ladybug and Cat Noir, doing everything they could to calm her down.

“Guess you’re awful… whether you’re… a hero… or a… villain.” Lila sputtered, attempting to draw breath and spitting blood between said draws. Cat Noir covered her mouth.

“Okay, that’s enough out of you,” he uttered.

Ladybug placed her hands on Scarlet Lady’s shoulders. “Chloé, please. You don’t need powers to be a hero, you don’t even need them to be a villain. But don’t do this, you’d be committing murder. Lila is not a good person, she’s made bad choices, she hates me, she hurt your friend, I know all that,” she drew another breath before continuing, “but you can be better than her, I’ve seen you do it, I know you can do it. Now please tell me where the akuma is.” The blonde glumly pointed to her sunglasses, which the spotted heroine broke, releasing the scarlet akuma. 

She was quick to purify it and toss her lucky charm, healing Lila of her injuries. With that Chloé returned to normal, but also froze in fear and shame.

“I… was a monster… wasn’t I Ladybug?”

“You can fix all this,” Cat Noir answered. Ladybug nodded.

“Actually, Cat would you care to tend to Chloé? I’m gonna make sure the principal of this school fixes a little mistake he made.”

As Ladybug went to discuss the situation with him, Chloé sat on the steps of the school, Cat Noir sat by her and the crowd dispersed to see what was going to happen with Ladybug.

“How does it feel?” Chloé asked the boy. Cat Noir’s head cocked in confusion.

“How does what feel?”

“Being Ladybug’s second fiddle, not getting to be in charge? Not being able to do anything!” The cat smiled, reassuringly.

“Ladybug’s not my boss, she’s not my superior. We’re partners, we stop crime, together. She’s usually the one who calls the shots because I don’t really like being bossy. She knows what she’s doing and I have faith in her. There’s no hierarchy Chloé.”

“Marinette…”

“I know,” he put his hand on the blonde’s shoulder, “Lila hurt her bad, but Ladybug can help her, she’s really trying. And I know you can try too, as Queen Bee, Scarlet Lady, even as yourself. Chloé, you were never a failure. Ladybug just wanted you safe.”

The blonde smiled, playfully scratching the boy’s ears. “So, you’re not as dumb as you look.”

“That’s the closest I’m going to get to a thank you isn’t it?”

“Hmph,” Chloé grunted, folding her arms and turning away from the boy. “Thank you,” she uttered.

“You’re welcome,” the boy replied.

Ladybug came out and nodded to her partner and Chloé. This meant the situation had been resolved.

“I’ll go inform Marinette that she’s been reinstated, bug out kitty cat.” She was about to head off.

“Wait!” Chloé called out, “can I… come with you?” There was no answer and the blonde turned away, dejected. However suddenly, Ladybug held her arm out and the blonde hopped on her back. Off they went to the bakery, Ladybug placed Chloé on the balcony. “I gotta check in with her parents, let them know it’s been sorted out.” She dropped to the front door and entered. Chloé took in the sight of her rival’s balcony, admiring it. Chloé’s was no doubt amazing, but Marinette’s was breathtaking. Suddenly the trap door opened and Marinette came onto the roof. 

“Hey, Chloé. Ladybug told me you’d be up here.”

“And it appears she took me to the wrong balcony,” Chloé huffed before running up and throwing her arms around Marinette.

“She told you I’m back in school huh?”

“Yeah,” she sobbed, “not that I’m happy about it or anything, I just need to show everyone I’m better than you.” Marinette hugged back.

“Sure thing Chloé, is that why you’re still hugging me?”

“I’ll stop hugging you when I feel like it, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I hate you! And I’m crying because you didn’t stay expelled!”

“Sure you do Chloé,” she giggled, kissing her cheek.

By the dawn of next morning, Marinette was back in school and Lila… was not.

**Author's Note:**

> Miraculous Fanworks' Discord, where we brainstorm our crazy ideas. https://discord.gg/mlfanworks


End file.
